Form for accounts.



A. L` FELCH. FORM FR ACCOUNTS.

(Applicntionfled Jan. 19, 1901.)

Patanted Dec. I7, i901.

Abill upon the freight-bill. `practice that it frequently happens that v'Unirse States Terreni* @erica ANDRVV L. FELCH, OF SOMERVILLE,MASSACHUSETTS.

4FORM Foa ACCOUNTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part Of Letters Patent No. 688,840, dated December17', 1901. Application filed January 19, 1901. Serial No. 43,902. (Nomodel.)

VT0 all whom it may concern.-

such a form as may be used in the shipping of freight or other matter. p

l/Vith the present system of shipping freight thefshipper or `consignormakes out a ship-l ping-receipt in duplicate or triplicate, which isdelivered with the shipment at, the freighthouse. y Thevreceiving-clerkor freight agent stamps or fixes his signature to the same af-v terchecking the shipment, and such receipt.` I'is preserved for theshipper, While one of the duplicate forms is used as the office record.From this the data regarding the shipment are copied upon a way-bill,which is'given to the conductor or otherwise forwarded to the receivingend, where the data regarding the shipment are again copied from theway- It is found in mistakes occur in this repeated copying of the dataregarding the different shipments; and it is the object of my inventionto provide such a system of shipping in which a form is used of such acharacter that the filling in of the proper data regarding the shipmentby the shipper or the receiving freight agent completes the entirerecord needed by the railroad or carrying agent. The form that Ipreferably use comprises a plurality of superimposed sheets or leaveshaving manifolding means therebetween, and each'leaf will preferablyhave in the same relative position thereon an indicating imprinted spaceto be used exclusively for either the word Prepaid or the word Expense,a space for the freight-house record and the receiving freight agentssignature, and in the saine space the receiving-clerks number may beplaced, and another space which contains a business-card of theconsignor, and in addition tothe above-named three spaces the form willcontain the usual spaces for registering the articles shipped and theirweights and a space imprinted to designate the consignees name anddestination of the goods. All of the leaves except the first or topleafwill have, in addition to the above-described spaces, the usualspace divided into prepaid and eX- pense columns for the freight chargesand a space for the car-number. The form will have as many leaves asnecessary to complete the entire records of the railroad 0r the carryingagent and in the form shown. For instance, the first sheet will be usedfor the shipping-receipt to he retained by the consignor, and the othersheets of the pad will be used, respectively, for the shipping-order,the conductors Way-bill, the delivery-check, and the freight-bill,though it will be understood that'more sheets than those enumeratedabove may be used, if desired, in completing the records of the railroador carrying agent. With the leaves of the form superimposed and providedwith manifolding means therebetween either the shipper or the receivingfreight agent will lill out the blanks. on the first leaf, whichconsists in Writing in the proper indicating limprinted spaces theconsignees name and the destination of the goods, the list of articlessent and their weight, with Prepaid or Expense, the date of theshipment, dre., and the consignors name and ad verlisement, it' this isnot imprinted on all the leaves. The freight agent will then fill in theremainingindicatingimprinted spaces by giving the freight-house recordand the receiving-clerks number and will affix his signature at theproper place. will be removed from the form and preserved by the shipperor consigner as his receipt,and

the receiving freight agent will then fill in the remaining blanks uponsheet 2 which consists in specifying the freight charges and giving thecar-number. It will be understood, of course, that in filling in theblanks on the first and second sheets, as above specified, by reason ofthe manifoldingmeans between the sheets an impression will be made uponeach succeeding sheet, so that a single writing upon the first sheetmakes an accurate impression thereof upon all the sheets necessary forthe complete record of the shipment. The second sheet is preserved atthe The first or top leaf i IOO receiving freight-station for theirrecords, and the third sheet is used by the conductor ashisway-bill.Theremainingsheetsare forwarded to the receiving end of the line, whereone of the remaining sheets is used as a delivery-check and the other asa freight-bill to thus complete the railroad records. With 'my systemand novel form for accounts therefor it is unnecessary that any copyingfrom l .cured together at oneeud in any suitable vven tion.

way. Suitable manifolding means are used between adjacent sheets orleaves, and for the lsake of convenience I prefer to carbonize the backside of each leaf, Vas seen at c, thus doing away with the necessityofeXtra carbonsheets, though my invention is not limited to aplurality ofsuperimposed sheets, each being carbonized on the back, as any usualmanifolding means maybe employed. Each leaf has a plurality of imprintedspaces thereon, in which spaces the various data regarding the shipmentare to be placed, and these spaces are preferably made. by dividing theface of each leaf into squares or spaces by horizontal and verticallines, though this par- Iicular method of dividing each leaf into spacesis not absolutely essential to my in- In the preferred embodiment of myinvention, however, each leaf will be divided into three divisions byparallel horizontal lines d b c', and each division is subdivided byvertical lines into spaces or squares which are properly imprinted todesignate the different data regarding the shipment, the simi--larly-imprinted squares on each leaf bei-ng in the same relativeposition.

Referring to Fig. 2, which represents the first sheet of the forni, itwill be seen that at is'the usual space imprinted to designatektheconsignees name and the destination of v:thegoods shipped, and at 6is the usual space imprinted to designate the list of the articles.included in the shipment, together with their Weights. In addition tothese usual spaces, whlch occur on all ordinary forms now used inshipping freight, I provide three additional 5, which will bepreferablyimprinted to designate the freight-house record, and in whichspace Will also be placed the freight agents signature, the date of theshipment, and preferably the receiving-clerks number. The freight-houserecord may be either kept by means of the progressive number of theshipment or in any other suitable way.

Referring to Fig. 3, which shows the second sheet of the pad, it will beseen that this contains duplicates of the spaces 2, 3, 4, 5, and (i onsheet l, said spaces being arranged in the same relative positions asthe corresponding spaces on the first sheet, the said spaces to be usedfor the same purpose as in Fig. 2. In addition to these spaces, however,sheet 2 Will have the usual ruled spaces imprinted to designate thefreight charges, together with the usual expense and prepaid columns inwhich the freight charges will be placed, said space being designated by7, and a space at the upper right-hand corner designated by 5', whichwill be imprinted to designate the carnumber and the date of theshipment. All of the spaces above described may be properly imprinted todesignate the facts or data which are to be filled in, if desired.

Sheet 2 (represented in Fig. 3) is to be used as the shipping-order andwill be preserved in the receiving freight-station to complete theirrecords, While the first sheet (represented in Fig. 2) will be returned,when properly signed and filled in, to the consignor as his receipt.Sheet 3 (represented in Fig. 4) is to IOO be used as the conductorsWay-bill, and this is in all particulars identical With sheet 2. (Shownin Fig. Sheet 4 (illustrated in Fig. 5) is to be used as thedelivery-check at the receiving end, and this will be in, all respectssimilar to sheets 2 and 3; but in addition thereto at the bottom thereofor in some other suitable position will be a space imprinted todesignate the signature of the consignee when the goods are delivered tohim and the date of' the delivery and other blanks imprinted todesignate who it Was delivered by, dac., if desired. kThe last sheet ofthe form (represented in Fig. 6) is used as a freight-bill and isidentical with sheetS2, 3, and 4, except that it has at some suitableplace, preferably at the bottom, a space for the signature of the,freight cashier.

From the above description it will be obvious that all of theleaves ofmy form include, in addition to the ordinary spaces which usually appearupon forms now in use in shipping freight, three special spaces orsquares, which, so far as I am aware, are new with nie-t'. e., thespecial square 2 to designate the word Prepaid or Expense, the specialsquare 4, imprinted to designate the person from whom the goods werereceived .and which space will also contain the businesscard of theshipper, and the space designated '5, Whichwill be imprinted todesignate the IIO esame gressive number of the shipment or any othersuitable data which may be desired. The last square 5 will also have aplace for the freight ageuts signature. It is also contemplated thatthis square will include the receiving-clerks number, which forms partof the freight-house record.

In using the form the blanks in the first sheet will be filled in eitherby the consignor or the receiving freight agent, and the receivingfreight agent will affix his signature thereto and give thefreight-house record, dsc., and in addition will fill in the freightcharges on blank 7 in sheet 2 and will write'the carnumber in blank 5.Since the back side of each sheet is carbonized, the filling in of theseblanks on sheets l and 2 will complete the record upon all the remainingsheets of the form, and the first sheet will then be torn off andretained by the consignor as a receipt, while the second sheet will beretained in the receiving freight-office to complete the records there,and the way-bill will be delivered to the conductor and the last twosheets will be forwarded to the receiving freight-station. Vhen thegoods ar`rive and are delivered, the blanks at the bottom of thedelivery-check are filled in by properly-authorized persons and thefreight-bill receipted, and these papers are filed away in their properplaces.

It will thus be seen that by my system of shipping freight I do awaywith the necessity of copying from one form onto another in order tocomplete the records of the railroad or carrying agent, and if anymistake occurs it can be readily traced to the person who lilled in theblank originally. In the present system of shipping freight it is foundthat this repeated copying of data regarding the shipments leads tofrequent errors.

While I have illustrated my invention as comprising only ashipping-receipt, a shipping-order, a way-bill, a delivery-check, and afreight-bill, yet it will be obvious that if more leaves aredesired tocomplete the record of the railroad or carrying agent such furtherleaves may be added to the form without departing from the spirit andscope of my invention, the form illustrated being merely a sample form.It will also be obvious that the invention is not limited in its use tothe shipping of freight, but may be used by any common carrier for thekeeping of records regarding shipments.

I contemplate in carrying out my system the carrying agent will furnishdifferent shippers with a variety of forms constructed as abovedescribed, so that the proper blanks maybe filled in by the shipper, andinasmuch as each leaf contains the advertisement of the `shipper I haveprovided, in addition to a complete system of account, a novel form ofadvertising.

Various changes may be made in the arrangement of the form withoutdeparting from the spirit of my invention as expressed in the appendedclaims.

i Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

l. A form for use in shipping freight, comprising a series ofsuperimposed leaves having manifolding means therebetween, each leafhaving thereon the usual spaces imprinted to designate the list ofarticles shipped and their weights, and the usual prepaid and expensecolumns for the freight charges, and in addition thereto and separatefrom said prepaid and expense columns a space imprinted to designate thewordl Prepaid or Expense, and a single appropriately-designated spacefor the freight-house record, said spaceincluding a space for the agentssignature, similar spaceson each leaf being in the same relativeposition whereby the filling in of the blank spaces on the first sheetof the form makes an impression on all the succeeding leaves of theform.

2. A form for use in shipping freight comprising a series ofsuperimposed leaves, all of the leaves except the last being carbonizedon the back side, and each leaf having usual spaces imprinted todesignate the consignees name and destination of the goods shipped, andthe list of the articles shipped and their weights, and the usualprepaid and expense columns for the freight charges, and in additionthereto a space imprinted to designate the word Prepaid or the wordExpense, an imprinted space to designate the freighthouse record and toreceive the freight-agents signature, and a space containing thebusiness-card of the shipper or consignor, the similar spaces being inthe same relative position on each leaf whereby when the blanks on thefirst sheet are properly filled in, a complete record is made on all thesucceeding leaves of the form.

3. A form for accounts comprising a plurality of superimposed leaveshaving manifolding means therebetween, each leaf having a plurality ofspaces thereon, said spaces including the usual spaces imprinted todesignate the consignees name and the destination of the goods, and thelist of articles shipped and their weight, and in addition thereto aspace imprinted to designate the word Prepaid or Expense, a space forthe business-card of the consignor, a single space to designate thefreight-house record and for the freight agents signature, the similarspaces on each leaf being in the same relative position, and all theleaves except the first having in addition and in the same relativeposition the usual imprinted space including the prepaid and expensecolumns for the freight charges.

et. A form for accounts comprising a series of five or more superimposedleaves having manifolding means therebetween, each leaf having thereon aplurality of spaces, said spaces including the usual spaces imprinted todesignate the list of articlesshipped and the consignees name anddestination of the goods,

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and in addition thereto a space imprinted to designate the Word Prepaidor Expense, a space occupied by a business-card of the consignor, asingle space for the freightagents signatu re and the freight-ho userecord, the similar spaces on the leaves being in the same relativeposition and all the leaves except the first having in addition to thespaces above named, and in the same relative position on the leaf, theusual imprinted space including the prepaid and the expense columns forthe freight charges, and a separate imprinted space to designate theear-number, said leaves When the blanks are filled serving respectivelyas a shipping-order, a Waybill, a delivery-check, and a freight-bill.

5. A shipping-blank comprising a plurality of superimposed leaves havingmanifolding means therebetween, each leaf having squares or spacesthereon which are inelosed by lines, said squares including a square forthe usual prepaid and expense columns for the freight charges and othersquares imprinted to designate the consignees name and address, the listof artielesA shipped, the word Prepaid or Expense, and the consignorsname respectively, and a square for the freightagents signature, thesimilar squares being in the same relative position on each sheet.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing Witnesses.

ANDREW L. FELOH.

Witnesses:

GEO. W. GREGORY, LOUIS C. SMITH.

